“If there’s one good thing that can come out of (the findings), there should be a greater respect for how foods are distributed,” said Rick Preuss, owner of Preuss Pets in Lansing. “I think just the publicity alone should make a difference.”

A major recall in March forced Preuss and other pet store owners in the area to pull some products off the shelves after pet food was determined to contain melamine and cyunaric acid, which cause sometimes fatal kidney damage to animals.

“The contaminants likely came from wheat sources in China,” said Dr. Dalen Agnew, an assistant professor in the Department of Pathobiology and Diagnostic Investigation.

Agnew was one of the key contributors to the survey, which was commissioned by the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians and carried out by toxicologists from MSU, Colorado State University and the University of Guelph, who gathered data and samples from several veterinary hospitals and diagnostic centers across the country.

“The findings demonstrate the importance of collaboration,” Agnew said. “Working together like that will help with managing future cases.”

Agnew dealt with some of the very first cases of pet food poisoning which began surfacing earlier this year. The survey began in May following the Federal Drug Administration’s announcement that melamine had been detected in some pet foods.

Of the 347 cases that met the criteria for pet food contamination, about two-thirds of the cases involved cats, while dogs recorded a greater number of fatalities.

Agnew had no sound explanation to offer for the ratio of dogs to cats affected by the contaminants.

“The survey offers more research questions than it does answers,” Agnew said.